


show me how defenseless you really are

by valz0ngburnt



Series: somewhere beyond the sea, amaurot awaits me [1]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Angst and Feels, Lightwarden Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV), M/M, Multiple Warriors of Light (Final Fantasy XIV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-15
Updated: 2020-04-15
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:00:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23665771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/valz0ngburnt/pseuds/valz0ngburnt
Summary: The Warriors of Light have fallen, and Gods have risen in their place. A part of my Lightwarden au.
Relationships: Solus zos Galvus | Emet-Selch/Warrior of Light
Series: somewhere beyond the sea, amaurot awaits me [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1703974
Comments: 2
Kudos: 18





	show me how defenseless you really are

**Author's Note:**

> Another continuation of my Lightwarden WoL series (that I've basically just started). The other part(s) of it can (and will) be found under the series its tagged under.
> 
> Title reference is from "So Cold" by Breaking Benjamin

There had been so much screaming, before - a chorus of agony ringing over the conjured ruin of a lost star. Now all that remained was a silence that was nearly as deafening.

Heavy-lidded eyes took in the scene. Three cocoons, far larger than most of their ilk, bound with ethereal feathers and connected by a material akin to sinew. Their surfaces were undulating slowly, as though they were breathing. Nine bodies were sprawled a half dozen fulms behind them, one closer than the rest, and newly stirring.

Emet-Selch knew he had to make his leave. Escape, before Norvrant’s new rulers awoke, bringing about the circumstances required for his plans - his _hopes_ \- to come to fruition. But he stood in place, watching the largest of the cocoons with an unusual intensity. 

Something beyond what normally compelled him to act was keeping him here, the conflicting desires making his head spin. All he knew was even if it left him weakened in the process, _he needed to_ _see_ what happened next.

As he stood and watched the largest cocoon began to twitch, the steady rise and fall of its surface faltering. There was a nasty crackling sound as the twitching grew errant, its feathered carapace shuddering violently.

“Show me, _Hero_.” Emet-Selch said aloud, the words making his chest heavy and his throat burn. “Show me the monster you have become.”

_Crack._

A fissure opened down the cocoon’s length, and it was as if someone had opened a window to the sun itself. Emet-Selch immediately rose his arms to shield his face, just a second too late as he was temporarily blinded by the overwhelming radiance. As the light reached him, it was as if he were enveloped in fire hotter beyond imagining. But he was prepared for this; his hands rose in front of him, eyes squeezed shut, his fingertips curling as he spoke an ancient prayer. 

His shield had barely begun to form however, when the endless torrent of light swirled like a tempest, then rushed _into him._ He choked mid-incantation, his eyes blowing wide and his vision going white. Though it lasted only seconds, the pain that came with the light was beyond description - filling every part of his essence until it abruptly lifted. 

Emet-Selch fell to his knees, gagging and spitting up ash. As his vision slowly returned, he saw his own gloved hands pressed to the ground before him, no longer white but now black with armored fingertips. Claws. _My body was burned away,_ he realizes, taking in a shuddering breath as he struggled to stand. 

His senses slowly returned to him with uncomfortable, unusual clarity. He could hear distant crying and more crackling as the other cocoons began to rouse. He could feel the weight of his cowled robe dragging him back down - unusually heavier than he last recalled it being. He shook his head hard, trying to clear his jumbled mind.

Think. _Think._

It was only once he was on his feet and struggling to stay standing that he first caught a glimpse of the tall figure standing before him. A chill snaked down his spine as he slowly raised his gaze to face it.

The wings were the first thing he noticed. White and gossamer like the cocoon that bore them. There were three sets in total, stretched outwards to dry in the umbral wind that now howled around the tiny platform they stood on. Fulms of luxuriously long and _blindingly_ white hair - tied back with a simple elegance - framed a regal face swathed with alabaster scales, its full lips curved into a familiar half-smirk that caused a shockingly powerful pang in his chest.

 _“Weary wanderer... No fight left to fight, no life left to live…”_ Its - _his_ \- voice resonated in on itself, softer echoes of it repeating parts of what he’d said with a loving reverence. Love for _me,_ he realized. Emet-Selch could see in his peripherals that a set of golden wings had emerged from the second cocoon, and the third was rapidly shaking and beginning to crack open as well. 

His knees gave out, but before he could fall the Lightwarden was _there_. His hand - adorned with similarly flawless scales - caught Emet-Selch by the collar of his robe and lifted him effortlessly so they were face to face, his feet now cleared from the ground. The Lightwarden’s eyes were terrible and breathtaking all at once - maddeningly bright and painfully gold, ringed by similarly blinding limbals of the purest white. 

“What have you done to me?” Emet-Selch barely recognized his own voice. The Lightwarden’s smile widened and the pain in his chest grew stronger.

 _“Do not despair.”_ He murmured. _“For I have broken your chains.”_

His eyes widened as the pieces finally clicked into place. The eternal hum that accompanied his every waking moment, buried at the back of his thoughts; it was _missing_ . His tempering was _gone._ The Lightwarden’s smile persisted as his free hand raised and cradled Emet-Selch’s face, thumb brushing away the tears of realization that were forming.

_“We have but an eternity together. Let us enjoy it.”_


End file.
